Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, 28-09-2020

Anirban Lahiri secures a creditable tied sixth at the Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship; Lahiri’s first top-10 on the PGA Tour in almost two years lifts him from 690 to 532 in the world ranking and earns him a spot at next week’s event

India’s Anirban Lahiri secured a creditable tied sixth place at the Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship on Sunday to register his first top-10 on the PGA Tour in almost two years.

The 33-year-old Anirban (69-72-64-70), lying tied seventh and six off the lead after the penultimate round, shot a two-under-70 in the last round to finish with a total of 13-under 275 at the USD 4 million event.

Lahiri’s final round featured four birdies and two bogeys and saw him close the week five shots behind winner Hudson Swafford of the United States at the third event of the 2020-21 PGA Tour season.

Former Asia No. 1 Anirban’s last top-10 on the PGA Tour came at the Mayakoba Golf Classic in Mexico in November 2018.

The two-time European Tour winner’s outstanding performance in the Dominican Republic this week earned him a spot at next week’s Sanderson Farms Championship in Jackson, Mississippi and also lifted him from 690 to 532 in the world ranking and from 69 to 21 in the FedEx Cup standings.

When Lahiri entered the week, he did not book a return flight to his home base in Florida and instead registered for a seat on the charter plane to the Sanderson Farms Championship, even though he was ninth reserve when entries closed last Friday.

“I felt really good after my first event in Napa. I had two really good rounds to finish that event as well, so I got it rolling here with some of that. Definitely, I've managed to build that snowball and build some momentum. Hopefully, I use this going forward and kind of keep this going and maybe even play a little better,” said Lahiri, who finished tied 36th at the season-opening Safeway Open after beginning the week with a 74.

He added, “I did not book a return flight and I booked myself on the charter, so this is going to be good for my confidence because I backed myself to do this.”

Lahiri did not have the best of starts this week, going four-over through his opening three holes on Thursday before fighting back for an opening 69. He followed it up with a 72 before lighting up the course with a flawless 64 on Saturday which pushed him up the leaderboard.

“The last couple of seasons, I've been very disappointing, and where I find myself in my eligibility is not great, so I need to play myself into some of the events that I like to play. Definitely I’ll have a lot of opportunities in the fall that I need to take and build on that. Hopefully get closer to being really in contention on Sunday. I've had outside chances, but the goal is to kind of get to the last few with a realistic chance or maybe even a lead,” said Lahiri.

Arjun Atwal, the other Indian in the field, finished tied 70th at one-under-287.

Elsewhere, at the European Tour’s Dubai Duty Free Irish Open played in Northern Ireland, India’s Shubhankar Sharma took tied 64th place at 11-over-291.

Source: PGA Tour